This
was the first tour on which Sri
Lanka played Test matches. The national
team (then Ceylon) had
previously visited Pakistan
in 1949-50, 1966-67 and in 1973-74 when Anura Tennekoon, the current manager,
was captain. His assistant manager, Ranjit Fernando, was Sri Lanka's
wicket-keeper in the first World Cup in 1975.

This
tour took place at the end of the 1981-82 season.Earlier, Sri
Lanka had played its inaugural Test match against England at Colombo.

Sri Lanka lost two Tests heavily but
achieved a draw in the Faisalabad
match. Duleep Mendis took over the captaincy for the Faisalabad Test when
skipper Warnapura injured a finger on his right hand. The outstanding
contribution came from Sidath Wettimuny whose 157 was Sri Lanka's first Test century.
Roy Dias, having made 98 in the same innings, then scored his own debut century
(109) at Lahore.

Somachandra (known as 'DS')
de Silva, the leading wicket-taker on either side, captured 17 wickets in the
3-match series with his leg-spin. In doing so, he also took the first five-wicket haul in by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket,
with 5 for 59 at Faisalabad.

Herbert Fernando of Nondescripts,
a medical officer in the Sri Lanka Army for 30 years, was the Ceylonese
wicket-keeper in all its unofficial Tests and representative matches from
1952 to 1971. Melville Perera was the
manager of Sri Lanka's
1975 World Cup side.Sydney Perera was …..Anuruddha
Polonowita, a left-arm spinner in representative matches for Ceylon, then coach at Ananda
College, later became Sri Lanka's
national curator.

Selection

Unavailable:none.

Tour Party Announced : 18 February 1982.

Arjuna
Ranatunga was still a school student.

Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka

7 days

(18 February - 25 February)

Travel

ColomboQRawalpindi

The team flew out of Colombo
on 25 February 1982 and landed in Rawalpindi,
Pakistan,
next morning.

Time spent in Pakistan

35 days

(26 February - 2 April)

Reinforcements

None.When Bandula Warnapura injured a finger on
his right hand, Duleep Mendis took the captaincy for the Faisalabad Test.